You Can't Count on Washington to Wake Up

I've got to start with The New York Times. Maybe it's just me, but when The Times comes out and basically confirms everything I've been talking about over the past few years — the things that I have been made fun of in The New York Times — you'd think there would be a little bit more of a reaction in the news and on the Hill.

But then again, you'd also think, with all the Harvard degrees we have walking around Washington, we'd get a little more "out of the box" thinking. Something a little different than the usual solutions we are presented with: Big government and tax hikes.

Wow, thank goodness we made sure to elect deep intellectuals. What would we ever do without the fresh new thinking of entitlement programs and taking more money from the people?

The No. 1 thing I get asked is: What can we do about it?

We know calling our elected officials doesn't work, because they are more worried about what special interests like the SEIU and ACORN think about them. They are more concerned with securing votes than what is actually good for America. Take Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana.

She was "on the fence" about the Senate's health care bill. She ended up voting for it. What changed her mind? Was it some amazing cost-cutting maneuver? Was it a guarantee that no one would ever get a boo-boo again?

No.

It was reported on Friday that her vote was sold in a $100 million bribe. Yes, in the health care bill — a bill about health and care and covering people on health-related issues — Senator Landrieu was assured that her state, Louisiana, would get at least $100 million in aid:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU, D-LA.: I am not going to be defensive about asking for help in this situation. And it is not a $100 million fix, it's a $300 million fix.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Oh, wait, sorry — my bad there. It was $300 million. She went on to point out there is bipartisan support for this money in Louisiana — including the Republican governor. Wow, no way. The Republican in Louisiana was for it? The bipartisan cup spilleth over with support!

I guess shame is dead in Louisiana too.

We've known shame has been dead in Washington; they brush off blatant corruption without even blinking

So we shouldn't be the least bit surprised that these same shameless politicians don't care about reading the bills they try and jam down our throats:

The American people — even though the media ignores your voice — are fed up with this stuff. Read the damn bill. How hard is that, Mr. Conyers? Especially since you are a lawyer.

We need to try something different. Can't your Ivy League brain grasp the idea that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, General Motors, Chrysler, Citigroup, Bank of America are not too big to fail? Let the system — the free market system — work.

When will someone in Washington peek their greasy little heads out of the box you are trapping us in and say: "Hey, that $12 trillion debt — we can't pay that off even if we took the combined profits of all Fortune 500 companies for the next 145 years, not including the interest. This doesn't look sustainable. Maybe we should stop spending?"

It begins on a pleasant note: "Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed."

So, how does even a slight raise in interest rates affect you? As the Times explains, even raising interest rates just 1 percentage point raise would cost taxpayers an extra $80 billion this year or: "Equal to the combined budgets of the Department of Energy and the Department of Education."

And what about that $12 trillion debt?

"The White House estimates that the government's tab for servicing the $12 trillion debt will top $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher."

Two things on this: Maybe one of the other forecasters — who just happened to be me — wrote, in "Common Sense," a book that has been on The New York Times own best sellers list for 23 straight weeks — wrote: "By 2019, our annual interest payments on the national debt will balloon to a projected $806 billion!"

If you want the news, stop reading The Times, because they are a little behind the times.

That interest payment is the equivalent of one TARP bill per year just to service the debt. The Times also explains that an additional $500 billion a year in interest expense payments would total more than: "the combined federal budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

But here is another little tidbit The Times discovered only today: "The competing demands could deepen political battles over the size and role of government, the trade-offs between taxes and spending, the choices between helping older generations versus younger ones, and the bottom-line questions about who should ultimately shoulder the burden."

Let me translate that for you: Rationing and death panels.

The New York Times is just discovering all of this today. But for anyone who watches my program on a nightly basis, let me show you what I said on August 6:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BECK: I want to make it very, very clear: What these people are talking about is how to ration in the case of an emergency. They define that as a shortage — a shortage of kidneys, hospital beds or flu vaccines — a shortage.

But what we have to remember is universal health care creates another shortage: A shortage of money. And when we are out of money, these people will begin making the rules governing your health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

The New York Times wonders why they are losing readers. It's because reading their paper is like entering a time machine or reading the news in your rearview mirror. They didn't even bother to jump on the ACORN story, which came complete with corruption, hookers and pimps.

So, while The New York Times has on page A1 that the deficit is crippling and the interest on the debt is insurmountable the minute the Fed starts raising the interest rates, we are still talking about health care. The latest Fox News poll (17-18 Nov. 2009) asks: "Based on what you know about the health care reform legislation being considered right now, do you favor or oppose the plan?" The results: In favor: 35 percent; opposed: 51 percent.

You have to ask why. The answers have already been given — I'm sure The Times will report the answer sometime in February. But here they are:

They need the framework to be able to control you and to ration everything; from electricity to health care to welfare to housing. They need that structure for when this starts to collapse.

The second thing is they need every dime they can squeeze, because they have lied to us and they are about to be trapped in those lies.

That's also the reason why Sarah Palin sold 300,000 books in a week. People are looking for anyone who is not like what we have come to know in Washington.

That's why, when I went on a book tour, over 25,000 people showed up. The New York Times (shockingly) did a story on this Sunday, but they and the rest of the media didn't quote how many people were there. You wouldn't want to tell the truth.

Because they are busy fundamentally transforming this country. It's the culmination of everything progressives have dreamed of for the last 100 years. That's why, despite the obvious unsustainable path and the hoards of people desperate for something else — something out of the box — the people are being ignored. Because they don't care about you.

We must not wait for a leader anymore. The people must lead and the leader will follow.

I announced this weekend that I'm going to have educational conventions around the country this coming year. We'll learn everything from community organizing, history, finance — because you have to know the truth and know what you are facing.

Then, on August 28, 2010, I want to meet you at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Surprise, surprise, the government wants to make it almost impossible to stage events or rallies at the site, which means this will probably be the last large gathering there.

But we are going to educate ourselves so we have teeth — so they fear us more than SEIU and their 2.2 million members. We are much bigger than that. We'll educate ourselves and show ourselves — as Republicans, Democrats and independents — in a united front. Standing before the man who taught us "united we; stand divided we fall." All Americans, just looking for someone with the honesty and integrity and the willingness to do the right thing, like Abraham Lincoln.

Because if we are going to save the country, we have to be ahead of the game — which counts all the writers of The New York Times out: They are probably busy contemplating if they should report on the Monica Lewinsky scandal or not.

But we have to be ahead of it and we have to be willing to think out of the box. Because there's a box they are creating for us: It suspiciously looks like a coffin.

Everyone stood around as the Republicans were driving nails into our coffin, saying "look how much money they are spending! Look at all the corruption!" So we kicked him out. And we turned to the Democrats, who coincidentally, had the same exact box. And he started doing the same thing, only faster. Both parties are both spending us into oblivion; one just gets us to the final destination more quickly.

I don't know if this means the end of the two-party system, but I do know it means the end of our country if we keep playing this game. When someone starts to wake up, grabs the crowbar and starts taking out the nails — I will follow them.

But we can no longer count on the people in Washington to wake up. It's really going to fall on your shoulders.